Matthew 9:35, commentary and pictures

Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. His work joined instruction, proclamation of salvation, and healing together as one ministry showing His power to save and His care for both body and soul. He felt compassion for the crowds because they were weary and scattered like sheep without a shepherd, and He gave Himself in constant self-sacrificing service bounded only by love. That united work of gospel teaching and healing is never to be separated, so medical missionary work is to be joined with the ministry of the word rather than set apart or made a substitute for preaching. Because He is no longer on earth in person, His followers are commissioned to continue the healing service He began, entering cities, villages and neglected places to relieve need and proclaim the message.

Cities Villages and Synagogues

Matthew 9:35 portrays Jesus traveling through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. His ministry joined teaching and preaching with practical care for people's needs, serving as the model for ministry to both spiritual and bodily need and as the pattern for sanitariums ordained to treat sickness of soul and body. That pattern is to be followed in cities and villages, on highways and byways, reaching all classes with the gospel, and it calls for determined, prayerful workers to enter neglected places and build up the work under the Holy Spirit's guidance. His healing ministry and the disciples' later power to heal were the work of the Holy Spirit, given so that Pharisaic opposition would not stop the Spirit's work of converting people.

His itinerant work reached both populated centers and the surrounding regions, including cities, towns, and villages, and was not limited by time or place. He healed the afflicted wherever they could be brought to Him, comforted those ready to receive His message with assurance of their heavenly Father's love, ministered throughout the day, and also cared for people who could come only after their daily work to earn support for their families. Beyond the synagogues He met people wherever they could be reached — on the hillsides of Galilee, in the great thoroughfares of travel, on the seashore and by the sea, in homes, and along roads and paths — rather than teaching only from a pulpit. He sought people's good and took an interest in their lives, which teaches meeting people where they are instead of withdrawing from society.

The work was conducted on so large a scale that no building in Palestine could hold the multitudes that thronged to Him, so that every town and village through which He passed became His hospital. He deliberately placed Himself in major thoroughfares carrying travelers from around the world so that all nations could learn of His mission and the plan of salvation. His example in this calls for taking the truth to large cities when capable workers can present it wisely. He brought salvation to people of every station — rich and poor, free and bond — while living among them in humble human form, teaching about heavenly things in language ordinary people could understand and bringing healing not only to the body but also to the sin-sick soul.

He healed all who came to Him and turned none away, and He remains present though unseen, so the sick have reason to expect relief and healing through faith. His fame as the great Healer spread throughout Palestine from Jerusalem to Syria; the sick came to the places where He would pass to call for help, while others came to hear Him and receive His touch. The report of His healing every kind of sickness and disease reached the Phenician region and gave hope to a distressed heathen Canaanite mother that He could heal her daughter, despite her exclusion from the privileges the Jews enjoyed and regardless of whether those seeking help were rich or poor.

Threefold Work Joined Together

Matthew 9:35 joins three parts of His work — instruction, proclamation of the message of salvation, and acts of healing — into one ministry that cares for people's bodily needs together with their spiritual needs. Teaching in the synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom were united with practical healing of every sickness and disease among the people. That union shows His power to save and His care for people in need of both body and soul.

He spent more time in healing than in teaching, and the largest part of His ministry was spent going about restoring the suffering and afflicted to health while teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. His healing covered every kind of sickness and disease, bringing healing not only to the body but also to the sin-sick soul. He is the sin-pardoning Saviour who heals every spiritual malady as well as every physical disease.

His healing ministry was the work of the Holy Spirit, given so that Pharisaic opposition would not stop the Spirit's work of converting people. He healed willingly and gladly and joyfully, with a loving Father's sympathy and compassion. Health and happiness followed Him wherever He went, and the blind and deaf rejoiced in His presence. As the great Physician He came not to destroy men's lives but to save them, bringing comfort and sympathy to the poor who without a helping hand will never recover themselves, so that many cured of physical suffering would be saved to eternal life. As Restorer He threw back upon Satan the reproach of evil originated by the enemy, because Satan is the destroyer and Christ is the Restorer.

He taught about heavenly things in language ordinary people could understand, and His words gave life to the ignorant. His teaching moved listeners and brought conviction. He comforted those ready to receive His message with assurance of their heavenly Father's love, freely and continually bestowing the eternal treasures given to humanity in Him.

Compassion for the Crowds

When He saw the crowds He was moved with compassion because they were weary and fainting and scattered like sheep without a shepherd, and He called them a plentiful harvest with few laborers and urged prayer to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into it. That same compassion for fainting multitudes scattered without a shepherd makes His going through all the cities and villages, teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and disease, the pattern for special work in long-neglected places. His teaching and preaching joined with practical care for people's needs holds precious lessons for ministry to the sick.

His work of teaching and healing was constant self-sacrifice, bounded only by His love and sympathy for the souls He was soon to give His life for, with a compassion that knew no limit and was not confined to any time or place. He went to people where they lived to do good, serving others with tenderness and working for their good. Wherever He went mercy was evident, with health and happiness following Him so that the blind and deaf rejoiced in His presence, and He freely and continually bestowed the eternal treasures God gave to humanity in Christ. He blessed, comforted and healed the suffering, forgave sins, comforted mourners and banished sorrow by His presence, bringing comfort, hope and strength to those in distress. His teaching moved listeners and brought conviction, and this reveals the compassion and lovingkindness of God.

Though the Majesty of heaven and King of glory, He clothed His divinity with humanity and humbled Himself to take human nature so He could meet men where they were. As the Messenger of the Covenant He brought the tidings of salvation to all, to people of every station, rich and poor, free and bond. The crowds of afflicted people came to Him from towns, cities and villages for healing of many kinds of disease. Their coming stands against what followed, for disease steadily increased across successive generations as people continued to violate the laws of life.

Pattern for United Ministry

Christ joined teaching the gospel with healing the sick as one united work, and the two are never to be separated into distinct ministries or placed under separate organizations. Medical missionary work is not a substitute for preaching the gospel but is to be united with the ministry of the word in all its branches, meeting the needs of both body and soul. He spent more time in healing than in teaching, and nurses and other workers are to follow that same combined example by teaching the gospel while caring for the sick.

Sanitariums and health institutions in every part of the world, together with schools, are divinely ordained and appointed as part of the gospel work for restoration of the entire person — physical, mental, and spiritual. They are to treat sickness of both soul and body as a special illustration magnifying the truth, and are to receive and labor for people of every class, including the poor and suffering. Missionary effort for the worst parts of the cities is at the same time to be left free to continue.

Ministers of the gospel are to unite with medical missionary work, with representatives, centers, and missions established on right lines in the cities and the gospel preached in every city. That city and village pattern is to be followed on highways and byways, reaching all classes with the gospel of the third angel's message. Physicians, nurses, and ministers are to look to Him as the mighty Healer and great Physician who made the human body, learning from Him and cooperating with Him so that He exercises His power through them to heal the sick. They are to point the sick and suffering to Him, encourage them to depend on Him and ask for bodily restoration, and while giving proper treatment teach repentance, conversion, and salvation for both soul and body.

Restoration of the body prepares the way for restoration of the soul, for medical missionary work is the heaven-ordained means of breaking down prejudice against the truth, finding entrance to hearts, and opening minds in places where truth has not been proclaimed. Such practical ministry to restore the sick to health can help convert people more than sermons without that work, and when faithfully done even professional men and the higher classes will become trained evangelists. True ministry therefore does not confine itself to Bible instruction but joins it with practical, self-sacrificing service without seeking payment, coming close to the sick, praying with and for them, teaching healthful living, and helping them turn from habits that harm body and soul through study of God's Word. That work awakens sufferers to accept health reform, leave harmful habits, help others, and be trained to help others, and it is to be done in close connection with Christ rather than relying on poisonous drugs or harmful training, including care without drugs by God-fearing physicians and nurses in institutions established for the sick.

His healing imparted soul-saving truth and made Him not only the Saviour who pardons sin but also the Restorer of afflicted people, giving physical relief without neglecting the soul. His followers are therefore to seek salvation of soul and body, bringing people the hope of the gospel and leading them to Christ who gave His own life for the sufferer and watches every case of affliction with intense interest. Because He heals every physical disease and every spiritual malady, an atheist or irreligious man should never take up the physician's work, for human sympathy alone cannot do what could be done through Christ. Medical missionary work is the Lord's helping hand to open the way for the gospel message, because the gospel is the power of God, and the evangelization of the world is His work carried on through human instruments commissioned to follow His example in pitying, tender love for lost souls, loving sympathy for the afflicted, tender watchful care for the sick, and compassion for the suffering. That same city-and-village work is the pattern for medical evangelistic labor in towns and villages today, joining care for physical needs with gospel ministry to gather people to salvation.

Call to Continue His Work

Jesus no longer walks the earth in person, so those who follow Him are commissioned to carry on the medical missionary work and healing service He began when He went through the cities, towns and villages teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing the sick. That continuation includes caring for the sick as He cared for them and establishing places where sufferers receive care from God-fearing physicians and nurses without the use of drugs.

His example calls for determined and prayerful workers who, guided by the Holy Spirit, enter neglected places and build up the work there. The warning message is to be carried to every place where it has not yet been proclaimed, in cities and villages, beyond established centers, and even in small-scale needy communities, so that people there can hear and souls can be saved. This is the pattern for special work in long-neglected places, moved by compassion for multitudes fainting and scattered like sheep without a shepherd and leading to prayer to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the plentiful harvest.

Ministers are to care deeply for people perishing in sin and give their talents to reaching them, because many need the message while laborers are few. Christian workers are to work for souls where people are, going to them where they live to teach the truths of the kingdom while blessing, comforting and healing the suffering and relieving the needs of the destitute. Efforts that gather people in cities to hear God's praises and have His Word explained simply bring people to Christ through teaching and preaching and give courage to the workers.

Workers are to reach people in varied settings, laboring in synagogues and going from place to place to meet them, doing God's work according to God's order and not human devising. Instead of teaching only from a pulpit or withdrawing from society, they are to go among people in the places of ordinary life, seek their good, and take an interest in their lives. Every believer is to follow the pattern of going from place to place preaching the precious gospel and sowing seeds of truth in listening hearts, feeling a deep interest in souls brought into connection and leaving unused no means God has put in the world for use on behalf of others. In extending sanitarium work for the restoration of the entire person — physical, mental and spiritual — through divinely appointed sanitariums and schools, those who locate and operate them are to labor intelligently after His example, allowing no selfishness or personal ambition to mar the work and seeking to secure the very places God indicates as most suitable for carrying it forward.

The Lord's power is not manifested more decidedly because those who profess to believe the truth have too little spirituality.